A report by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) published on January 16, 2017 points to several areas for improving health system financing policies. The organization deals in particular with the question of the price of medicines. According to her, the treatments are more and more expensive when they are put on the market, and their price is still rising steadily, putting funding systems at risk.
Pharmaceutical expenditure is increasingly devoted to expensive drugs, in particular because the price of drugs against cancer or rare diseases is increasing. Paying agencies also have difficulty covering certain therapies: expensive treatments targeting a limited population, because the number of people concerned is increasing; and new drugs that are highly effective and cost-effective in the long term (eg for hepatitis), but which are prescribed to a large population. These organizations cannot therefore cope with it.
Technology, research, health data: new challenges for health systems
According to the OECD, public authorities and funding bodies must be able to work with industry and regulatory bodies to encourage affordable treatments. They must also have the power to adjust prices and not refund ineffective products. The report also recalls that it is important to encourage new technologies and therapies, but that their safety must be guaranteed. The OECD estimates that many products are authorized by the regulatory authorities and used, even though there is insufficient evidence of their harmlessness and their effectiveness.
The organization raises other problems: investments against AIDS/HIV, tuberculosis, resistance to antibiotics or dementia are not attractive enough. Public authorities should therefore increase their attractiveness in the eyes of private research organisations. Last aspect to focus on: health data. They offer the possibility of improving health systems, research and epidemiological surveillance, but exploiting them requires governance frameworks to limit the risks.
Also to read
Complementary health: the French less well reimbursed
Over-the-counter medicines: when are they reimbursed
Health data soon available to insurance companies
